She famously wept on air when announcing North Korea’s founder Kim Il Sung’s death in 1994.

When his son Kim Jong Il died in 2011, it was Ri - clad in black funeral clothes and her voice trembling - who delivered the news to North Koreans.

Despite officially retiring in 2012, Ri has been brought back for major announcements.

Sunday's broadcast underscored her longevity at a time when current leader Kim Jong Un has purged some party and military officials from his father’s era.

Outside North Korea, the "pink lady" is a familiar face of the regime during the latest tensions over Pyongyang's weapons programs.

"I know that if something happens, she will talk," said Tokyo resident Masashi Sakota.

Matt Walker, a credit manager in Sydney, said Ri was "very expressive and excited" on the news item he watched this week.

"I don't know how you can get excited about bombs going off. It just seems very odd," he said.

In a rare 2012 interview with China’s state-run CCTV, Ri said she wanted to help train the next generation of North Korean broadcasters, who she said were younger and better suited for today’s television audience.

She said she saved her gentler side for the North Korean public.

"When we read to people in the DPRK, you shouldn’t shout but speak gently to viewers," Ri said.